Brown University shooting: What 4 videos left by the suspected shooter confirm – and still don’t answer

In four short videos on an electronic device found with his body, the suspect in last month’s fatal shootings at Brown University and of an MIT professor laid out a patchwork of details about the attacks.

Woven among his confessions to the crimes and winding related thoughts, several nuggets match facts that emerged as authorities were identifying Claudio Neves Valente, 48, as wanted in the killings of students Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, and Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.

As the videos’ transcripts – translated from Portuguese and released this week by the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts – raise fresh questions, they also intersect with key known elements of the case. Here’s how some of the suspect’s own words flesh out – or further blur – the crimes that rocked Greater Boston and a manhunt that captured national attention.

Okay, (sighs) as you can see, my eye is kind of f**ked up. It’s a shell round, bounced there. I don’t know if there are any kind of implications on the success of what I wanted to do or not …

As he’ll more clearly explain, Neves Valente was hurt during one of the shootings. His eye injury was not shared publicly, if known at all, by law enforcement between the Brown attack on December 13 and the discovery five days later of the suspect dead by suicide at a storage facility.

Uhm (pause) It’s done. It was, it was six months, man. Not six months, six semesters. Uh … I had already planned this for a little more. It seems that I’m starting to see a bit better out of my eye, but very little or almost nothing. The time for the final conclusions has arrived. The time for the final conclusions has arrived. Uhm, it was all a little incompetent but at least something was done. The only objective was to (pause) leave more or less on my own terms, and – and it’s – it’s already long overdue.

The suspect seems to reveal how long he planned at least one of the attacks. But even as he speaks of “final conclusions” and his “only objective,” he offers no motive for the shootings at this or at any point in the videos; it’s a critical element of the case still under scrutiny by federal investigators.

And at least leave (pause) that I wasn’t – wouldn’t be the one who ended up suffering the most from all of this. No, that cannot happen. So, if you don’t like it, tough luck. Tough luck. There was also a lot of sh*t that I did not like, and I had to put up with it. So, what has been done now … I’m in a storage space in Salem, (New Hampshire), I’ve had this here for three years, I think.

Neves Valente doesn’t go into what exactly he “had to put up with” before pivoting to his location: the storage space he says he rented far longer than the few weeks investigators had thought.

After killing his former academic colleague Loureiro on December 15 in Brookline, Massachusetts – about 50 miles away from the Brown attack in Providence, Rhode Island – the suspect immediately drove about 40 miles and swiped into the storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, according to Rhode Island’s attorney general. It appears he never swiped out.

I still have money. I would have money for a few more good years, if it was in Portugal or a cheaper place it would still be a long time, but I don’t care. I’ve been here … I’ve been here without caring for a very long time now.

From Entroncamento in central Portugal, Neves Valente was a “very bright” but reclusive young man who was estranged from his family and whose mother once told a neighbor her son “needs help, but he doesn’t want to get it,” said his former neighbors in Lisbon, where he and Loureiro both were students between 1995 and 2000 at a prestigious engineering school.

Neves Valente began studying at Brown in 2000 on an F-1 visa – a nonimmigrant visa for full-time international students – US Attorney Leah Foley of Massachusetts has said. He likely took physics classes in the Barus & Holley building where the December shooting unfolded.

To say that I was extraordinarily satisfied, no, but I also don’t regret what I did. Honestly, my only regret is this thing in the eye (laughs). But it was really hard, man. I really have far – far too much inertia. But since I was almost confronted by a guy there that day … not almost, I actually was confronted and he knew my … my … my license plate … .

Right before the gunfire at Brown, the suspect stopped in a bathroom at the Barus & Holley building, where a man – later identified as John, per a police affidavit – noticed his clothes seemed inadequate for the cold weather. John earlier had seen nearby a “grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” the document states, and he soon saw the suspect leave the building and appear to unlock the Nissan with a key fob.

John stayed outside as the man suddenly turned from the vehicle and walked in a different direction, then circled back before changing directions whenever he saw John, the witness told investigators. At one point, John confronted the man, asking him why he kept circling the block, the affidavit says. The man responded: “Why are you harassing me?” it says. John then walked down the street as the man walked toward the car, the affidavit says.

Authorities also mapped the suspect’s winding path right before and after the attack around the Barus & Holley building based on footage from neighbors’ cameras and released the details during the manhunt.

… I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me.

Stumbles and hurdles in the search for the Brown gunman, then the MIT professor’s killer, meant the manhunt dragged on for days. From the dearth of surveillance cameras in the Brown building where the shooting erupted to authorities’ early identification of the wrong man, plus behind-the-scenes friction between local law enforcement and the FBI, to the crush of tips investigators had to sift through, five days elapsed between the first shot and the discovery of the suspect’s body.

But look, I did one more, basically, since I’m not sure; it was done at a relatively short distance and (pause) quickly, and I don’t know exactly when I was hit in the eye, so I don’t know exactly … I hope that at least the first one hit. I don’t know. I don’t care. It’s all over.

The suspect “grumbled about a self-inflicted injury he suffered when he shot the MIT professor at close range,” the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in releasing the transcripts.

I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me. Uhm, the few times there was an appearance that it had happened, I later had access, uhm, to the people privately, the conversations we had privately showed it was all fake. Uhm (pause) so they are not going to get anything from me. I did not like any one of you. I saw all of this sh*t from the beginning. I began to grow suspicious since I barely had conscious memories, at the age of three. At the age of five, I was already sure … So go f**k yourselves, to hell with you.

Throughout the videos, the suspect “showed no remorse,” federal prosecutors said. “(O)n the contrary, he exposed his true nature when he blamed innocent, unarmed children for their deaths at his hand.” The suspect did not give any further details about prior apologies he’d gotten or his suspicions as a young child.

Three e-mails should go out today, tonight, people will receive them, basically. I’m not saying anything else.

The US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts has stated it would provide further updates as new information becomes available and victims are properly notified. A spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on the existence or contents of the emails.

And the thing is with this eye situation, I even thought about doing it with glasses on, and then at the last moment I thought: no, because the glasses fog up, this is at close range, (unintelligible). I was stupid. If I had done it, it wouldn’t have … But I also have no interest whatsoever in staying here. That’s it. (unintelligible). I also have no interest in being famous. I don’t give a damn about how you judge me or what you think of me. The overwhelming majority of things that are going to be said, I can already imagine.

Many mass shooters have shown a fascination with or been fixated on other mass shooters and their lives out of a need to feel understood, to have role models and to be part of a community, according to experts in the psychology of school shooters. Neves Valente seems to nod to the culture that fawns over mass attackers while insisting he wants no part of it.

In fact, I was already reading, uhm, I particularly like Trump’s sh*t, to have – have called me an animal, which is true. I am an animal and he is also, but uhm, I have no love – I have no hatred towards America, I also have no hatred at all. This was an issue of … of opportunity. I would really like to thank you for the only opportunity that you gave me here, which was this one … .

“Hopefully, they’re going to capture this animal,” President Donald Trump told reporters December 15 from the Oval Office, adding it’s “always difficult” to manage an investigation of this kind. Trump also deflected questions about why the manhunt was taking so long, saying the feds “came in after the fact.”

“This was a school problem. They had their own guards, they had their own police, they had their own everything,” he said. “But you’d have to ask that question, really to the school, not the FBI.”

Even though the stupid car is outside, and obviously there is a record of my entry, and there are cameras and sh*t, but it will probably be a few good hours, so, the longer I stay here, the better. Let’s see if I’ve got the balls to do this to myself now, because it was hard as hell to do it to all of these people, man. It was hard as hell … It’s 10:00 PM, and that’s it.

Before arriving late December 15 to the storage facility, the suspect’s rental car was seen several times around Brown between December 1, when he got it in Boston, and December 12, including by John. Between the university shooting and the professor’s killing, Neves Valente swapped its license plates to an unregistered Maine plate. Still, the suspect parked his car outdoors at the storage facility, where he knew there’d be proof he swiped in.

Meanwhile, authorities plugged a description of the Nissan into a system run by Flock Safety that can read license plates and identify other vehicle details, then match sightings of the same car, including with different tags. The technology helped locate the suspect, Providence’s police chief said.

Neves Valente also appears to portend his own manner of death.

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-8255. You can also reach a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

(Unintelligible) When I say that I have no – no hatred toward America, I also have no love for it – you can barely see this – I have no love. Actually, I think that coming here, both times I did, was a f**king mistake. But to say that you all are extraordinarily bad, that would be … nei – nei – neither bad nor good. It’s the same sh*t. You are monkeys like the other ones. But I wanted to leave this … I was reading the recording I made … no, not reading but watching it. I said I had no hatred, but I also have no love. It’s the same thing with Portugal, and most of the places where I have been. It says nothing. Wherever a guy goes (pause) that’s how it is. Let’s see how this is going to wor – work now. If I really have the courage to do this.

In the shortest of the four videos, the suspect focuses on his regrets amid his intercontinental life. His first stint at Brown was brief, “attending for only three semesters as a graduate student until taking a leave in 2001 and formally withdrawing effective July 31, 2003,” the school’s president wrote after his death.

The suspect reentered the US in 2017 via the diversity visa program, where a specified number of applicants from designated countries are admitted through a lottery system, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He got permanent legal US residency, known as a green card, and, at some point later, a Florida driver’s license.

Meanwhile, Neves Valente had not spoken with his parents in years, a former neighbor told CNN. At one point, his mother confided to the neighbor her fear he would sell his Lisbon apartment and disappear, which the neighbor says eventually happened.

In these two instances, I needed a catalyst – for both of them. But for the first one, it was the fact that I was confronted, and in the second, I also had one, you could say, a little bit. So …

It is not clear whether or how Neves Valente and Loureiro may have interacted during their time in the same Portuguese physics program and if they were in touch afterward. Loureiro graduated in 2000 with his physics degree and stayed on as a researcher before becoming a professor in 2016 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Loureiro, 47, was found wounded in the foyer of his condo building in Brookline, Massachusetts, a neighbor told the Boston Globe, and later died at a hospital. “There was security footage that captured (Neves Valente) within a half mile of the professor’s residence in Brookline, and there is video footage of him entering an apartment building in the location of the professor’s apartment,” said Foley, the US attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Loureiro is believed to have been targeted, a law enforcement official said.

I already know that you are going to say that I am mentally ill, or some sh*t like that. That is all nonsense. That’s all bullsh*t excuses. You are (pause) Uh … those are all excuses for you to f**k whoever you don’t care about. I am – I am sane, … and (pause) I’ve always been, more or less. No – no – no, no – no one is perfect, but (sigh) (pause) In my … In my take on all of this (pause) is that (pause) I think the world cannot be redeemed. To sum it all up, that is it.

Suspects in some high-profile attacks have been described as having mental health problems, but that doesn’t mean their mental health issues are to blame for the killings, experts have said. Indeed, people with mental illness are much more likely to be victims, rather than perpetrators, of violence, studies show. Mental illness is a strong causal factor in suicides, studies show.

I do not even know if I’m going to leave this here. But even if I delete it, it is on an SD card, it’s going to be a little hard. I want to know if you are going to post this, maybe I would prefer that you don’t, and (pause) I don’t care at all about being famous, having a legacy, and sh*t like that, manifestos and f**king stuff. I have absolutely no patience for that. Even though I would have a lot to say and write, I don’t care. I’m not going to give you the right to that.

Federal officials released the transcripts Tuesday.

Just one more scene. It seems like someone over there said that I was saying that I was … Allah Akbar (phonetic) or some sh*t like that. I do not remember having said anything. If I did say something, it must have been some kind of an – an exclamation, uhm, because I thought that one …

“Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is greater,” is used by Muslims in moments of celebration and gratitude. The phrase also sometimes is used as a battle cry and has been employed by those with a nefarious agenda to instill fear of anyone who utters it and to raise concerns about Islam itself, according to Muslim scholars and civil rights advocates.

I – I never wanted to do it in an auditorium. I wanted to do it in a regular room. And I had plenty of opportunities, especially this semester, I had plenty of opportunities, but I always chickened out, and I already explained why I did it this time. So, it all went wrong. I think that outside is what turned out best, but when I entered the auditorium, basically I only saw one guy down there, if I even saw him initially. And I thought, fuc – it was, and I must have made an exclamation like, “Oh no!” or something like that, to express that it was empty, that is, if I said something like that.

It was about 4 p.m. when a 21-year-old teaching assistant was wrapping a review session with a reported 60 or so students in the Barus & Holley building’s room 166, one of its largest classrooms. Joseph Oduro heard shots in the hall before the gunman entered his room through a door at the back, locked eyes with the economics teaching assistant, yelled something incomprehensible, then “just started shooting,” Oduro said.

I thought that the people had left. Because they were kind of stupid. There is – there is an emergency exit (laughs) on the lower right side. They ah … all of those people that were hiding, under the … the table, or whatever the hell, they could have perfectly left through there. I thought that they had – that that was what happened when I was outside, which I assume is where it turned out best, but maybe not, actually, because when I left, I didn’t see anyone there anymore. Ah … I assume … I thought they had all left through there. But then I realized that no. That they were all actually hiding under the – the – the chairs and the … it was hard to see, but that’s it. Uhm, now that should be everything.

Some students escaped through other doors. Oduro and about 20 students ducked and huddled behind a 10-foot-long desk at the front of the auditorium, and he called 911, then waited what “felt like an eternity” for the gunfire to stop, he said. He didn’t lift his head until campus public safety officers arrived and told them it was safe to leave.

Two students were dead. One who hid with the TA was shot in her legs, Oduro said. Eight others were wounded.